I’ve been thinking about how we look at paintings and nature. The issue came up with a collector. When we view the natural landscape, we don’t see details everywhere. In the landscape there is foreground, middle ground, and distant ground.  A good painter will spend a great amount of time observing, not just painting the landscape. We decide which of these areas get the most attention. Thus called the focal point, or what I like to call the area of interest. 

Many inexperienced painters try to make all areas of the painting detailed. The viewer has no focal area to focus on. They are confused because they don’t know how to be led through the painting. If everything is important then nothing is. Our natural view is never focused on everything in the scene. It is the painter’s job to tell the viewer where to stop for a moment on an important element. It is the painter’s job to guide a path through the scene.

On the other hand, our collectors have the right to ignore our training and to get the dream they ask for. I never say no. I explain my reasoning, but their ideas take precedence over mine every time. It’s not my painting, but theirs.

This country painter loves my collectors so much……

.